A story published today in Stars and Stripes
reports that Army researchers saw alcohol misuse rise from 13 percent
among soldiers to 21 percent one year after returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan, underscoring the continuing stress of deployment for some
troops.

In post-deployment
reassessment data completed in July, researchers also saw soldiers with
anger and aggression issues increase from 11 percent to 22 percent after
deployment. Those planning to divorce their spouse rose from 9 percent
to 15 percent after time spent in the combat zone.

And that’s just the start of the problems, according to military family
support groups.

“At the end of the day, wounded servicemembers have wounded families,”
said Joyce Wessel Raezer, government relations director for the National
Military Family Association. “More must be done to link servicemembers
and families with the services they need and the information about PTSD
and other mental health issues.”

The data and other testimony about the effects of deployment stress came
at a briefing called by House Democrats on Thursday to look at the issue
of mental health care and resources for servicemembers.

Nearly 1,600 people responded to an NMFA online survey this summer about
deployment and post-deployment issues. To ease their stress and that of
their loved ones, families wanted to know:

More about what
servicemembers are experiencing in the combat zone. “Forewarned is
forearmed,” said one respondent.

The normal
behaviors associated with a deployment to a war zone and warning
signs of something more serious.

How long it should
take before a servicemember “gets back to normal.”

What they should
do when they encounter unusual behavior.

In the survey, families also suggested that every servicemember and
family go through mandatory counseling upon the servicemember’s return,
to get around the stigma of seeking help.

Also, parents of single servicemembers felt ignored, even though
unmarried military make up nearly half of deployed troops. But unlike
spouses, parents of those troops are not given military ID cards and are
often not able to access information and services available to military
couples.

Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., said he organized the briefing because he
believes the military health care system still isn’t fully prepared to
deal with troops with post-traumatic stress disorder. Defense Department
officials estimate about 18 percent of troops in Iraq and 11 percent in
Afghanistan will develop PTSD.

“We commit a serious disservice to veterans and their families if we
only focus on the veteran with PTSD,” he said. “Congress must act to
improve the Defense Department’s and (Department of) Veterans Affairs’
capacity to have a family-centered approach to treating it.”

Dr. Charles Figley, director of Florida State University’s Traumatology
Institute, said those types of stress problems, if left untreated, can
become more serious health issues like PTSD. He said more needs to be
done to fund mental health care programs for the returning troops.

He also predicted thousands of veterans in dire need of mental health
services — “another Katrina-type disaster as these people leave the
service and flood the VA” — if more resources aren’t made available to
servicemembers and their families.

Charles Flora, associate director of the office of readjustment
counseling with the Department of Veterans Affairs, said he believes the
department is providing adequate services to recently separated troops
with stress disorders. But when pressed by Democrats about funding for
the future, he noted that the VA’s mental health experts are “running at
close to capacity.”

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of the Defense Department’s
deployment health support directorate, said officials are working not
only to better identify at-risk troops — largely through post-deployment
surveys — but also to better inform them of counseling resources
available to them.

But House Democrats at the briefing said more needs to be done to
monitor the troops’ health, especially for guardsmen and reservists who
may not be under as close observation as active-duty servicemembers.